1

Gender Pay Gap Information Regulations 2017 Summary of reported data for 2017/18

October 2018

2

Contents

List of Tables 3

List of Figures 3

Executive Summary 4

Background 6

Public Sector 6

Private and Voluntary Sector 6

Measures Used 8

Median and Mean GPG Measures 9

Data 10

Gender Pay Gap Viewing Service 10

Reported Data 14

Employer Compliance with the GPG Information Regulations 2017 14

Distribution of Reported Gender Pay Gaps 15

Distribution of Reported Bonus Gaps 22

Distribution of Reported Quartiles 28

Employer Action Plans 29

Approach 29

Findings 29

Further Reading 29

Annex One: Example Gender Pay Gap Report 31

3

List of Tables

Table 1: Metrics required under GPG Information Regulations 2017 ................................ 8

Table 2: Additional employer data available on GPG Viewing Service ............................ 10

Table 3: Employer compliance with regulations by sector ............................................... 14

List of Figures

Figure 1: Employer compliance with regulations by week of reporting ............................ 15

Figure 2: Distribution of reported median GPGs .............................................................. 16

Figure 3: Distribution of reported mean GPGs ................................................................. 16

Figure 4: Explanation of box-and-whisker plot ................................................................. 17

Figure 5: Range of reported median GPGs by industry, with cross-industry comparison 18

Figure 6: Range of reported mean GPGs by industry, with cross-industry comparison ... 19

Figure 7: Range of reported median GPGs by employer size band, with cross-industry

comparison ...................................................................................................................... 20

Figure 8: Range of reported mean GPGs by employer size band, with cross-industry

comparison ...................................................................................................................... 21

Figure 9: Distribution of reported median bonus gaps ..................................................... 22

Figure 10: Distribution of reported mean bonus gaps ...................................................... 23

Figure 11: Range of reported median bonus gaps by industry ........................................ 24

Figure 12: Range of reported mean bonus gaps by industry ........................................... 25

Figure 13: Range of reported median bonus gaps by employer size band ...................... 26

Figure 14: Range of reported mean bonus gaps by employer size band ......................... 27

Figure 15: Proportion of women in quartile, by numbers of employers reporting ............. 28

4

Executive Summary

The gender pay gap (GPG) is the difference in the average hourly wage of all men and

women across a workforce. If women do more of the less well paid jobs within an

organisation than men, the gender pay gap is usually bigger.

From Spring 2017, employers with 250 or more employees in England, Wales and

Scotland are legally required to report annually on the gender pay gap within their

organisation both on their own website, and via a dedicated Governmental reporting

portal. This report summarises the data that employers reported under the first year of

the regulations, along with findings from related research conducted by the Government

Equalities Office (GEO).

Key findings are as follows:

• Overall employer compliance with the regulations stands at 100% of identified

organisations as of August 1st 2018. At the deadline, 94% of employers had

complied (96% of public sector organisations, and 93% of private sector

organisations).

• 77% of reported median GPGs were positive, 14% were negative, and 9% of

employers reported a median GPG of 0%.

• 88% of reported mean GPGs were positive, 12% were negative, and 1% of

employers reported a mean GPG of 0%.

• 53% of reported median bonus gaps were positive, 15% were negative, and 33%

of employers reported a median bonus gap of 0%.

• 62% of reported mean gender pay gaps were positive, 14% were negative, and

24% of employers reported a median bonus gap of 0%.

• While 57% of employers have more women than men among their lowest paid

employees, only 33% have more women than men among their highest paid

employees.

• As of May 2018, 48% of in-scope employers had published an action plan

outlining how they intend to tackle their GPG.

• Employers reported some difficulty collating the data required to make GPG

calculations in the first year, but the majority found it easy to register and input

their data on the GPG Reporting Service.

o 28% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to gather the data required to

make the GPG calculations, 35% said it had been “difficult” or “very

difficult”.

5

o 40% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to make the GPG calculations,

while 17% said it had been “difficult” or “very difficult”.

o 87% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to register with the GPG

Reporting Service, while 6% said it had been “difficult” or “very difficult”.

o 95% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to input their data. 1% said it

had been “difficult”, and none said it had been “very difficult”.

6

Background

The gender pay gap (GPG) is the difference in the average hourly wage of all men and

women across a workforce. If women do more of the less well paid jobs within an

organisation than men, the gender pay gap is usually bigger.

From Spring 2017, employers with 250 or more employees in England, Wales and

Scotland are legally required to report annually on the GPG within their organisation both

on their own website, and via a dedicated Governmental reporting portal. This report

summarises the data reported under the first year of the regulations, along with findings

from related research conducted by the Government Equalities Office (GEO), including:

• Employer compliance with the regulations

• Distributions of reported metrics by industry and employer size

• Estimates of the proportion of employers producing an Action Plan to tackle their

GPG

• Results from a survey undertaken with employers reporting data on the GPG

Reporting Service.

There are different regulations covering employers in the public sector and those in the

private and voluntary sectors.

Public Sector

Most public sector employers must follow the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and

Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. This includes most government departments, the

armed forces, local authorities, NHS bodies, maintained schools and academy trusts and

universities. The full list can be found in Schedule 2 of the regulations. If a public sector

employer listed in Schedule 2 has 250 or more staff on 31st March, then they must

publish their data by 30th March of the following year.

Private and Voluntary Sector

Private and voluntary sector employers must follow the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay

Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Public sector employers not listed in Schedule 2

above must also follow these regulations. If a private or voluntary sector employer (or a

It is important to note that the gender pay gap is not the same as unequal pay, i.e.,

paying men and women differently for performing the same (or similar) work. Unequal

pay has been unlawful since 1970.

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public sector employer not listed in Schedule 2) has 250 or more employees on 5th April,

they must publish their data by 4th April of the following year.

8

Measures Used

The regulations require in-scope employers to report on fourteen distinct metrics, as

detailed in Table 1.

Table 1: Metrics required under GPG Information Regulations 2017

Type Metrics Required

Description

Difference

in hourly

rate

Median gender

pay gap

The gap in the median hourly rate of pay between male

and female employees expressed as a percentage, i.e.:

(A − B)

A× 100

Where:

A = the median hourly rate of pay of all male relevant

employees.

B = the median hourly rate of pay of all female relevant

employees.

Mean gender pay

gap

As above, but taking the gap in the mean hourly rate of

pay between male and female employees instead of

the median.

Proportion

of women

in each

pay

quartile

Proportion of

men/women in

each pay quartile

(reported as 8

values between 0

and 100).

To calculate the quartiles, employers must sort their

employees according to hourly pay, and then split them

into four equal groups (“pay quartiles”). They are then

required to report on the proportions of men and

women in each pay quartile.

Who

received

bonus pay

Proportion of

women receiving

bonus pay

The proportion of employees receiving a bonus, split by

gender.

Bonuses include anything that relates to profit sharing,

productivity, performance, incentive and commission.

They must be received in the form of cash, vouchers,

securities, securities options, and interests.

Proportion of men

receiving bonus

pay

Difference

in bonus

pay

Median bonus

bay gap

As for “Difference in hourly rate”, but bonus pay is

treated as annual, rather than hourly. Note that only

employees receiving bonus pay are included in the

calculations. Mean bonus pay

gap

9

An example GPG Report is provided as Annex One.

More details on these measures are provided in the GEO/Acas guidance, “Managing

Gender Pay Gap Reporting”1.

Private and voluntary sector employers (and public sector employers not listed in

Schedule 2 of the regulations) must also publish a written statement on their own

website. The statement must confirm that the published information is accurate and must

be signed by an appropriate senior person. The name and job title of that person must be

published on this website.

Median and Mean GPG Measures

Employers are required to report both their median and mean GPG.

The median measure requires employers to sort all their male and female employees in

order of hourly earnings, take the middle employee from each list, and compare their

earnings. This is useful, because they show the typical situation in the organisation – a

small number of very highly paid men or women would not greatly distort the numbers.

However, this could also be a shortcoming, as it would not show inequalities at the

highest and lowest levels.

The mean measure requires employers to add up the hourly rate of all their male and

female employees, and divide each total by the number of employees. This is useful as it

places the same value on every employee’s earnings. However, the value could be

distorted, particularly by employees on very high pay (the National Living Wage is likely

to reduce the level of variance at the lowest levels of pay).

Considering both values together is useful in understanding the pay situation within any

given employer.

1 http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/m/4/Managing_gender_pay_reporting_04_12_17.pdf

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Data

This report makes use of two main sources of data: the figures reported by employers

and now available on the Gender Pay Gap Viewing Service, and the Annual Survey of

Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

In addition, further research was undertaken in May to July 2018 to quantify the number

of employers producing action plans to tackle their GPG, and to understand employer

experiences in reporting their GPG data; details of the methodologies employed are

provided later in this report.

Gender Pay Gap Viewing Service

All data reported by employers are available online at the Gender Pay Gap Viewing

Service2. Reports can be viewed for individual employers for each reporting year, and the

data for all employers across each reporting year are also available as a compiled data

table3.

The Viewing Service includes all fourteen gender pay gap metrics for each employer (see

Table 1), as well as the variables listed in Table 2.

Table 2: Additional employer data available on GPG Viewing Service

Data Notes/Nature of Provision

Company, Mutual or

Charity Number

Optional

Sector (i.e., public or

private and

voluntary)

Mandatory

Industry Optional. For organisations with a Company Number, this is

automatically populated as Companies House Standard

Industrial Classification (SIC) – note that the accuracy of this data

is reliant on organisations keeping their Companies House record

up-to-date. Where employers have entered multiple SIC codes,

the analysis in this report has used the first displayed code to

classify industry. For public sector employers which do not have

company numbers, this has been manually assigned for all in-

scope.

2 https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/ 3 https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/viewing/download

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Name and job title of

the individual

responsible for

reporting

Compulsory only for private and voluntary sector employers, and

public sector employers not named in Schedule 2 of the

regulations.

Organisation

Address

Not mandatory, but required in order to register on the portal.

This is likely to be the address of the employer’s Head Office, or

the office location of the individual reporting. It may not be

representative of the geographical spread of that employer’s

workforce.

Number of

employees

Optional. Banded as follows:

• Less than 250

• 250 to 499

• 500 to 999

• 1,000 to 4,999

• 5,000 to 19,999

• 20,000+

Date by which the

employer was

required to report

Compulsory, automatically populated based on sector.

Date of reporting Compulsory, automatically populated.

Whether the

employer reported

on time

Compulsory, automatically populated.

Link to narrative

report

Optional. Employers were given the opportunity to provide a

narrative explaining the reason for any GPG within their

organisation.

All GPG metrics provided on the Viewing Service are self-reported, and employers are

responsible for the accuracy of data provided. Where employers reported statistically

unlikely data (e.g., mean and median gender pay gaps of zero), they were contacted and

asked to check their submission. The Equality and Human Rights Commission are

responsible for investigating breaches of the regulations, which includes the submission

of inaccurate data, and have published their enforcement strategy4. Employers can adjust

their reported data for 2017/18; this report is based upon data extracted from the portal at

24th October 2018, but this remains subject to change.

4 https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/closing-gap-enforcing-gender-pay-gap-regulations

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Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is the main data source used to

quantify the GPG in the UK. ASHE is a survey based on a 1% sample of UK employees

and is the most comprehensive source of information on the structure and distribution of

earnings in the UK. More information on ASHE can be found on the Office for National

Statistics website5, along with results from the most recent ASHE release (2017)6.

In this report, we use ASHE data to provide sector level estimates of the gender pay gap

for in-scope employers, offering additional context to the reported data.

Differences between GPG Viewing Service and ASHE data

The data on the GPG Viewing Service and those available by ASHE are structured

differently, which result in differences in the figures produced. There are two main

differences:

• The main ASHE GPG estimates include all employers, not just those in scope

for these regulations (i.e., those with 250 or more employees). To counter this

issue, industry GPG estimates have been produced for this report that include

only those working for an in-scope employer. However, please note that that the

figures in this report will therefore not match other published industry-level GPG

estimates.

• GPG Viewing Service Data is reported at the employer level, while ASHE data is

reported at the employee level. Effectively, the Viewing Service data considers

employees in clusters (i.e., grouped by employer), whereas ASHE data

considers them as one large group. The way in which those clusters occur is a

function of the structure of the economy.

This is important in considering how the data can be analysed. To take an

average of GPGs of employers in a given industry would not give the same

result as the ASHE data for that industry, as the way in which employees are

clustered will distort the picture. Consider the following simplified example, of an

industry restricted to two employers.

5 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/methodologies/guidetointerpretingannualsurveyofhoursandearningsasheestimates 6 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2017provisionaland2016revisedresults

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Averaging the GPGs of Firms A and B would give a sector GPG of 15%

(25%+5% = 30%, divided by 2 to get an average). However, the overall sector

GPG will be much closer to Firm B’s GPG of 5%, as Firm B is much larger than

Firm A.

For this reason, when analysing Viewing Service data, this report does not

include averages across firms, but instead reports on the distribution of reported

GPGs, for example, highest and lowest reported values, and midpoints.

For sector and economy level GPG analysis, ASHE is the most reliable

source. For employer level GPG data, the Viewing Service data is the only

known source.

Firm A has 250

employees and a GPG

of 25%

Firm B has

5,000

employees

and a GPG

of 5%

The sector (comprising Firms

A and B) has 5,250

employees and a GPG of 7%

14

Reported Data

Employer Compliance with the GPG Information Regulations 2017

Table 3 shows the numbers and proportions of employers complying with the regulations, split by sector (as defined within the regulations).

Table 3: Employer compliance with regulations by sector

Sector

Estimated number of organisations in scope for regulations7

Number (%) of employers complying by deadline

Number (%) of employers complying after deadline

Total (%) of compliant employers

Public 1,629 1,567 (96%) 62 (4%) 1,629 (100%)

Private

and

Voluntary

8,623 8,025 (93%) 598 (7%) 8,623 (100%)

Total 10,252 9,592 (94%) 660 (6%) 10,252 (100%)

Note: Figures correct as at 23rd October 2018.

In addition, 281 employers that were not in scope for the regulations opted in to reporting

their GPG data. Of these, 227 were from the private and voluntary sectors, and 54 were

from the public sector.

Overall, 10,533 employers submitted data in the 2017/18 reporting year.

Figure 1 shows in-scope employer compliance by week of reporting, up to the final

reporting deadline. A large proportion of employers reported towards the end of the

compliance period. Of those reporting on time:

• 1,313 (84%) of in-scope public sector employers reported in the final 30 days (to

30th March 2018), 744 (47%) did so in the final week.

• 6,949 (87%) of in-scope private and voluntary sector employers reported in the

final 30 days (to 4th April 2018), 3,843 (48%) did so in the final week.

7 The number of in-scope organisations was initially estimated by cross-checking the BEIS Business Population Estimate with additional sources. GEO then worked with individual employers to establish if they were in scope on the snapshot date.

15

Figure 1: Employer compliance with regulations by week of reporting

n = 9,593. Includes only in-scope employers reporting before the compliance deadline.

Distribution of Reported Gender Pay Gaps

Figures 2 and 3 show the distribution of median and mean reported GPGs. A positive

gap means that men are paid more than women on that measure.

• 77% of reported median GPGs were positive, 14% were negative, and 9% of

employers reported a median GPG of 0%.

• 88% of reported mean GPGs were positive, 12% were negative, and 1% of

employers reported a mean GPG of 0%.

There are a higher proportion of median bonus gaps of 0% among the reported figures

than might have been expected, particularly given that figures are required to be reported

to one decimal place. These could be legitimate; for the median, in particular, this could

occur in a firm where over half of the lowest paid women and men are on the same rate

of pay (e.g., the National Living Wage). However, some gaps of 0% may be the result of

miscalculated or misreported data.

All GPG metrics provided on the Viewing Service are self-reported, and employers are

responsible for the accuracy of data provided. Where employers reported statistically

unlikely data (e.g., mean and median gender pay gaps of zero), they were contacted and

asked to check their submission. The Equality and Human Rights Commission are

responsible for investigating breaches of the regulations, which includes the submission

of inaccurate data, and have published their enforcement strategy8.

8 https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/closing-gap-enforcing-gender-pay-gap-regulations

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

03-A

pr

17-A

pr

01-M

ay

15-M

ay

29-M

ay

12-J

un

26-J

un

10-J

ul

24-J

ul

07-A

ug

21-A

ug

04-S

ep

18-S

ep

02-O

ct

16-O

ct

30-O

ct

13-N

ov

27-N

ov

11-D

ec

25-D

ec

08-J

an

22-J

an

05-F

eb

19-F

eb

05-M

ar

19-M

ar

02-A

pr

Private & Voluntary Public

Public sector reporting deadline on 30th

March

Private & Voluntary sector reporting deadline

on 4th April 2018

16

Figure 2: Distribution of reported median GPGs

n = 10,533

Figure 3: Distribution of reported mean GPGs

n = 10,533

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

<-6

0

-60--

55

-55--

50

-50--

45

-45--

40

-40--

35

-35--

30

-30--

25

-25--

20

-20--

15

-15--

10

-10--

5

-5-0

0-5

5-1

0

10-1

5

15-2

0

20-2

5

25-3

0

30-3

5

35-4

0

40-4

5

45-5

0

50-5

5

55-6

0

60-6

5

65-7

0

70-7

5

75-8

0

>8

0

Num

ber

of

Em

plo

yers

Report

ing

Reported Median GPG (%)

Private & Voluntary Public

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

<-6

0

-55--

50

-50--

45

-45--

40

-40--

35

-35--

30

-30--

25

-25--

20

-20--

15

-15--

10

-10--

5

-5-0

0-5

5-1

0

10-1

5

15-2

0

20-2

5

25-3

0

30-3

5

35-4

0

40-4

5

45-5

0

50-5

5

55-6

0

60-6

5

65-7

0

70-7

5

75-8

0

>8

0

Num

ber

of

Em

plo

yers

Report

ing

Reported Mean GPG (%)

Private & Voluntary Public

17

Figures 5 to 8 show the range of median and mean reported gender pay gaps by industry

and employer size band.

For each grouping, gender pay gap data from ASHE have been included as a

comparison. Please refer to the Data section at page 10 for an explanation of this data,

and why industry averages may differ.

When considering industry level GPGs, ASHE data are the most appropriate, while the

Viewing Service data are most appropriate in considering individual employers. The two

are combined here only to aid interpretation of the GPG portal data.

Ranges are expressed here using box-and-and whisker plots, as shown in Figure 4

below.

Figure 4: Explanation of box-and-whisker plot

Note: The box-and whisker plots used here exclude extreme values (outliers), defined as

those that are over 1.5 times the interquartile range away from the upper and lower quartile.

18

Figure 5: Range of reported median GPGs by industry, with cross-industry comparison

n = 10,533, Blue dots (●) illustrate the cross-industry comparisons drawn from ASHE data. Note that data for sector (T) is not available in the ASHE sample.

19

Figure 6: Range of reported mean GPGs by industry, with cross-industry comparison

n = 10,533, Blue dots (●) illustrate the cross-industry comparisons drawn from ASHE data. Note that data for sector (T) is not available in the ASHE sample.

20

Figure 7: Range of reported median GPGs by employer size band, with cross-industry comparison

n = 10,533, Blue dots (●) illustrate the cross-industry comparisons drawn from ASHE data.

In the reported data, those in larger

employer size bands tended to report a

narrower range of median GPGs.

21

Figure 8: Range of reported mean GPGs by employer size band, with cross-industry comparison

n = 10,533, Blue dots (●) illustrate the cross-industry comparisons drawn from ASHE data.

22

Distribution of Reported Bonus Gaps

Figures 9 and 10 show the distribution of median and mean reported bonus pay gaps. A

positive gap means that men are paid more than women on that measure. Note that

where an employer does not pay bonuses, they will have a mean and median bonus gap

of 0% - this was the case for 2,326 (22%) of reporting employers9.

• 53% of reported median bonus gaps were positive, 15% were negative, and 33%

of employers reported a median bonus gap of 0%.

• 62% of reported mean gender pay gaps were positive, 14% were negative, and

24% of employers reported a median bonus gap of 0%.

Figure 9: Distribution of reported median bonus gaps

n = 10,533

9 Though some of these may have a 0% bonus gap based on paying men and women equal bonuses or, as mentioned previously, the data may have been miscalculated or misreported.

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

<-1

50

or

(bla

nk)

-150

--1

40

-140

--1

30

-130

--1

20

-120

--1

10

-110

--1

00

-100

--9

0

-90--

80

-80--

70

-70--

60

-60--

50

-50--

40

-40--

30

-30--

20

-20--

10

-10-0

0-1

0

10-2

0

20-3

0

30-4

0

40-5

0

50-6

0

60-7

0

70-8

0

80-9

0

90-1

00

100

-11

0

110

-12

0

130

-14

0

140

-15

0

>1

50

Num

ber

of

Em

plo

yers

Report

ing

Reported Median Bonus Gap (%)

Private & Voluntary Public

23

Figure 10: Distribution of reported mean bonus gaps

n = 10,533

Figures 11 to 14 show the range of median and mean reported bonus gaps by industry

and employer size band. Note that no comparable ASHE data exist on bonuses, so we

are unable to provide an industry-level comparison.

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

<-1

50

-150

--1

40

-140

--1

30

-130

--1

20

-120

--1

10

-110

--1

00

-100

--9

0

-90--

80

-80--

70

-70--

60

-60--

50

-50--

40

-40--

30

-30--

20

-20--

10

-10-0

0-1

0

10-2

0

20-3

0

30-4

0

40-5

0

50-6

0

60-7

0

70-8

0

80-9

0

90-1

00

100

-11

0

110

-12

0

120

-13

0

130

-14

0

140

-15

0

>1

50

Num

ber

of

Em

plo

yers

Report

ing

Reported Mean Bonus Gap (%)

Private & Voluntary Public

24

Figure 11: Range of reported median bonus gaps by industry

25

Figure 12: Range of reported mean bonus gaps by industry

26

Figure 13: Range of reported median bonus gaps by employer size band

27

Figure 14: Range of reported mean bonus gaps by employer size band

28

Distribution of Reported Quartiles

Figure 15 summarises the reported proportions of women in each pay quartile, across all employers.

If all firms were gender balanced across pay quartiles, we would expect each column to be evenly distributed between the four quartile

blocks. However, the reported data show that women are more likely than men to be in the lower pay quartiles.

Figure 15: Proportion of women in quartile, by numbers of employers reporting

n = 10,533

16.2%23.5%

29.7%35.9%

26.9%

25.7%

25.9%

30.6%

36.0%32.5%

29.7%

24.9%

20.9% 18.4%14.6%

8.5%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Lower Lower-Middle Upper-Middle Upper

Em

plo

yers

Report

ing (

%)

Quartile

76%-100% women

51%-75% women

26%-50% women

0%-25% women

57% (36.0% +

20.9%) of firms

reported a lower pay

quartile that has

more than 50%

women. This in itself

would not result in a

GPG itself,

however…

...only 33% (24.9% + 8.5%)

of firms have an upper pay

quartile that is more than

50% women. This trend

towards imbalance is the

fundamental cause of the

GPG.

29

Employer Action Plans

To gain a better picture of employer progress in reducing the gender pay gaps, the Government Equalities Office undertook an exercise to estimate the proportion of employers who had externally published an action plan outlining their intentions to tackle their GPG.

From this exercise, it was estimated that, as of May 2018, 48% of in-scope employers had published an action plan.

Approach

A random sample of 400 in-scope employers was drawn from the data reported at 25th May 2018. This sample size allowed an estimate to be made with a 5% margin of error.

A working definition of an action plan was established as follows: “a document in which the employer has considered their gender pay gap and has offered a next step (e.g. a target, plan, or aim) to implicitly or explicitly reduce or maintain their GPG”. This definition was designed only to identify an action plan at the broadest level, not to reflect on their quality. Note that an action plan is treated as distinct from a supporting narrative in looking at ways to tackle a GPG, rather than simply explain the causes.

Two assessors then considered whether each of the 400 sampled employers had provided an action plan meeting this definition; this exercise took place over 27th -29th June 2018. For each employer, assessors looked at any URL provided in their GPG report (available for just under two thirds of the sample), briefly reviewed the wider company website (including a search where available), and undertook an internet search of the company name and the search term “gender+pay”. If an action plan could not be found via this approach, it was deemed not to be publicly available via reasonable access attempts. The two assessors compared results, and a third assessor moderated where any discrepancies emerged.

Findings

Of the sample, action plans meeting the above definition could be found for 194 employers (48%). We therefore estimate that 43-53% of employers have published an action plan to tackle their gender pay gap.

Further Reading

For further information on employer attitudes towards tackling their GPG, please refer to the GEO-funded research report, “Employers’ understanding of the gender pay gap and actions to tackle it” by James Murray, Paul Rieger and Hannah Gorry10.

10 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/658476/Employers__Understanding_of_the_Gender_Pay_Gap.pdf

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Employer Portal Survey Between 21st June and 16th July 2018, GEO surveyed registered users of the GPG Reporting Service as to their experiences in reporting their data. The survey was emailed out to all 2,400 users who consented to give feedback when registering with the service, and of these 1,000 (42%) responded. The headline findings were as follows. Of those surveyed:

• 80% had made use of the GOV.UK guidance on GPG reporting11, while 72% had

used Acas guidance.

• Of those who had used the GOV.UK guidance, 86% said it was “very clear” or

somewhat clear, while 10% said it was “somewhat unclear” or “very unclear”.

• Of those who had used the Acas guidance, 89% said it was “very clear” or

somewhat clear, while 6% said it was “somewhat unclear” or “very unclear

• 28% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to gather the data required to make the

GPG calculations, 35% said it had been “difficult” or “very difficult”.

• 40% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to make the GPG calculations, while

17% said it had been “difficult” or “very difficult”.

• 87% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to register with the GPG Reporting

Service, while 6% said it had been “difficult” or “very difficult”.

• 95% said it had been “very easy” or “easy” to input their data. 1% said it had been

“difficult”, and none said it had been “very difficult”.

• 90% had produced a narrative to explain their GPG figures.

• 63% had already taken some action towards compliance in the 2018/19 reporting

year.

• 78% had used the GPG Viewing Service, and 98% of those had found it “very

useful” or “somewhat useful”.

11 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gender-pay-gap-reporting-overview

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Annex One: Example Gender Pay Gap Report

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© Government Equalities Office

Reference: GEO-RR-005

Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to: lauren.probert@geo.gov.uk

This document is available for download at www.gov.uk/government/publications